Certificate of deposit consolidation

ABSTRACT

A method of consolidating certificate of deposits includes providing a consolidation button for the certificate of deposits to a user on a computing device and receiving a user selection of the consolidation button. The method also includes scheduling one or more of the certificate of deposits for consolidation responsive to the user selection of the consolidation button.

CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/100,675, filed on Apr. 10, 2008, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,099,349, thedisclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.This application is also related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/100,684, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/100,693, U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/100,701, and U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/100,703, all of which are filed on Apr. 10, 2008 and now abandoned.The disclosure of these applications are hereby incorporated byreference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A certificate of deposit (CD) is a time deposit, a financial productcommonly offered to consumers by banks, thrift institutions, and creditunions. Such CDs are similar to savings accounts in that they areinsured and thus virtually risk-free. A CD has a specific, fixed term(often three months, six months, or one to five years), and, usually, afixed interest rate. It is intended that the CD be held until maturity,at which time the money may be withdrawn together with the accruedinterest.

Commonly, institutions mail a notice to the CD holder shortly before theCD matures requesting directions. The notice usually offers the choiceof withdrawing the principal and accumulated interest or “rolling itover” (depositing it into a new CD). Generally, a window is allowedafter maturity where the CD holder can cash in the CD without penalty.In the absence of such directions, it is common for the institution to“roll over” the CD automatically, once again tying up the money for aperiod of time (though the CD holder may be able to specify at the timethe CD is opened to not roll over the CD).

Some people have a lot of CDs at a lot of institutions. Managing the CDsmay be complex and time consuming. Additionally, people may havedifficulty determining what to do with a CD's proceeds when the CDmatures.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A user may schedule certificates of deposit to be consolidated atmaturity into an annuity, long term care insurance, or life insurance byan institution. A consolidation button or icon may be provided on a webpage that is accessible to a user. The user may select the consolidationbutton or icon to schedule their CDs for consolidation.

In an implementation, a questionnaire may be provided to a user todetermine whether the user is eligible for CD consolidation and togather information pertaining to the user's CDs. A user may confer witha representative of the institution to ensure compliance and/oraccuracy.

In an implementation, the user may provide information pertaining totheir certificates of deposit, such as amount and maturity dates to theinstitution. In response, the institution may provide recommendations tothe user regarding consolidation of the CDs by rolling them intoannuities or insurance.

This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the detaileddescription. This summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing summary, as well as the following detailed description ofillustrative embodiments, is better understood when read in conjunctionwith the appended drawings. For the purpose of illustrating theembodiments, there are shown in the drawings example constructions ofthe embodiments; however, the embodiments are not limited to thespecific methods and instrumentalities disclosed. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an implementation of a system that may beused to provide certificate of deposit consolidation;

FIG. 2 is an implementation of an example screen shot that may beprovided to a user for certificate of deposit consolidation;

FIG. 3 is an operational flow of an implementation of a method that maybe used to provide certificate of deposit consolidation;

FIG. 4 is an operational flow of another implementation of a method thatmay be used to provide certificate of deposit consolidation;

FIG. 5 is an operational flow of another implementation of a method thatmay be used to provide certificate of deposit consolidation; and

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an example computing environment in whichexample embodiments and aspects may be implemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an implementation of a system that may beused to provide certificate of deposit consolidation. By consolidation,it is meant that a user may schedule certificates of deposit to beconsolidated or rolled over at maturity into an annuity, long term careinsurance, or life insurance by an institution.

An institution system 5, associated with or otherwise maintained by aninstitution such as a financial services institution, may include aconsolidation processor 20 that may process a request to consolidate oneor more CDs from a user computing device 95 associated with a user 90.The consolidation processor 20 may retrieve information from storage,such as information storage 22 and user storage 24, and use theinformation in processing the request to consolidate the user's CDs. Theconsolidation processor 20 may also store information pertaining to theuser's CDs in storage, such as information storage 22 and user storage24.

A consolidation plan generator 25 may generate a CD consolidation planpertaining to the user's CDs and provide the consolidation plan to theuser 90 via the user computing device 95. The consolidation plangenerator 25 may receive information from the user 90 via the usercomputing device 85, the consolidation processor 20, and frominformation storage 22 and user storage 24, for example.

The consolidation plan generator 25 may use tools, calculators,applications, and aggregators, for example to generate a consolidationplan. In an implementation, the consolidation plan generator 25 mayinclude one or more of a portfolio planner, a financial assessment tool,a budget generating tool, an asset allocation tool, a life insurancedetermination calculator, a retirement advice generator, bankcalculators, debt analyzers, retirement income planners, etc. Theconsolidation plan generator 25 may evaluate user information (e.g., thepersonal information and the financial information pertaining to theuser) and consolidation plan that may comprise financial advice and/orrecommendations for the user 85.

Information storage 22 may contain information pertaining to users whohave accounts or products hosted by the institution system, for example.Information storage 22 may include data that may be used in thegeneration of a consolidation plan for the user's CDs and may be used toprocess CDs for consolidation. User storage 24 may contain informationdirected to users, such as name, address, marital status, accountinformation, products owned, etc., for example.

The institution system 5 may generate and provide a questionnaire to theuser 90 that requests information from the user 90 such as financialobjectives, information pertaining to the user's CDs, other financialproducts owned by the user, current income, investments, risk tolerance,expenses, tax returns, insurance coverage, retirement programs, estateplans, and other pertinent information that may be used in theconsolidation of the user's CDs and/or to generate a consolidation planthat meets the user's overall or specific financial agenda. Thequestionnaire may be pre-filled or personalized with data already knownto the institution system 5 pertaining to the user 90, perhaps fromexisting accounts that the user has with the institution system 5. Theinstitution system 5 may generate a consolidation plan based at least inpart on the questionnaire.

Information directed to CDs and CD consolidation may be provided via awebsite 10 to the user computing device 95 associated with a user 90.For purposes of clarity and simplicity, an applicant for CDconsolidation may be referred to herein as a “user.” Thus, any referenceto a user herein also includes any type of applicant, institution memberor prospective member, or the like.

In an implementation, instead of hosting the website 10, the institutionsystem 5 may comprise a conventional application server hosting aproprietary online service accessible only by a private network. In anyevent, the institution system 5 may have appropriate security mechanismsin place to prevent unauthorized third parties from intercepting theuser's information.

The user 90 may provide data to the institution system 5 via the usercomputing device 95. The user computing device may be a handheldcomputing device such as a personal digital assistant (PDA) or a mobilephone, for example, or any type of personal computer (PC). The usercomputing device and the institution system 5 may be connected over anetwork 88. It is contemplated that the network 88 may be any type ofprivate or public communication network such as, for example, anintranet, Internet, local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN),wireless fidelity (WiFi) network, cellular connection, plain oldtelephone service (POTS), and the like. An example user computing deviceis described with respect to FIG. 6.

As described further herein, one of the service representatives 50, 52associated with the institution system 5 may confer with a user 90 aboutCD consolidation. Such a conference may be via an Internet chat sessionor a telephone, for example. Although only two service representatives50, 52 are shown in FIG. 1, it is contemplated that any number ofservice representatives may be associated with the institution system 5.

In an implementation, a user interface module 15 may receive contentfrom the consolidation processor 20 or the consolidation plan generator25 and format one or more pages of content 11 as a unified graphicalpresentation that may be provided to a user computing device 95. Thepage(s) of content 11 may be directed to CD consolidation informationand may be provided to the user computing device 95 via the website 10associated with the institution system 5. It will be appreciated that,in an embodiment, a service representative 50, 52 of the institution mayaccess the user interface module 15, or the underlying CD consolidationinformation, to assist the user 90 with any questions the user may haveand/or to confirm the compliance and accuracy of the information, forexample.

When the user 90 accesses the website 10, using a web browser on theuser computing device 95, they may be presented with financial servicesinformation such as CD information and/or CD consolidation information,via the page(s) of content 11. The information may be displayed on oneor more web pages, further described with respect to FIG. 3, forexample. The user 90 may enter information into the web pages via a webbrowser on the user computing device 95.

The content may be personalized to the user 90, using informationretrieved from the user storage 24, for example. Personalization mayinclude presentation of the page(s) of content 11 and/or functionalityof the page(s) of content 11. For example, a graphical representationdisplayed on the page(s) of content 11 may be pre-filled with someinformation pertaining to the user, such as name, address, policynumber, etc. In an implementation, personalization may be directed toCDs and/or other products that the user may own, and may providespecific information on the user's CDs and/or other products, such asamounts, maturity dates, etc., for example. Personalization is notlimited to CD or CD consolidation and may be directed to any type ofdata, information, product, service, advertisement, etc.

As described further herein, in an implementation, the user 90 mayselect a consolidation button or icon presented on a web page. Selectingthe consolidation button or icon allows the user to consolidate theirCDs, if the user meets criteria established by the institution, forexample. The user may be provided with one or more documents online, viathe website 10 or via email for example, that they can electronicallysign. Any known electronic signature technique may be may used. The user90 may electronically sign the one or more documents and provide themelectronically to the institution system 5, via email or the website 10for example.

A user access system may be implemented as a web server in animplementation. The user access system, through the use of any suitableinteractive web technology, provides an interactive experience to theuser 90 through which access to and maintenance of their financialadvice, recommendations, and/or financial plan such as a CDconsolidation plan can be accomplished. Any technology that providesinteractivity through a web browser is considered to be within the scopeof the present discussion and may include, without limitation,Hyper-Text Mark-Up Language (HTML), Dynamic HTML (DHTML), JavaScript,and Ajax.

In an implementation, the institution may be a financial servicesinstitution having a financial services website. On the website, in acommon space, the user may be presented with financial advice,recommendations, and/or a financial plan such as a CD consolidationplan.

The institution system 5 may comprise one or more computing devices 6.The user computing device 95 may allow the user 90 to interact with thecomputing device(s) 6. The computing device(s) 6 may have one or moreprocessors 7, storage 8 (e.g., storage devices, memory, etc.), andsoftware modules 9. The computing device(s) 6, including itsprocessor(s) 7, storage 8, and software modules 9, may be used in theperformance of the techniques and operations described herein.Information associated with the user, products, and/or services, may bestored in storage 8 or other storage, for example.

Example software modules may include modules for sending and receivinginformation between the institution system 5 and the user 90, requestingand retrieving information from storage 8, information storage 22, anduser storage 24, processing CD consolidation requests, and generatingweb pages, described further herein. While specific functionality isdescribed herein as occurring with respect to specific modules, thefunctionality may likewise be performed by more, fewer, or othermodules. The functionality may be distributed among more than onemodule. An example computing device and its components are described inmore detail with respect to FIG. 6.

FIG. 2 is an implementation of an example screen shot 200 that may beprovided to a user for certificate of deposit consolidation. The screenshot 200 may be of a web page that is provided to the user via afinancial services institution or a financial services website, forexample.

The screen shot 200 may comprise a common area 205 that may includeitems such as login information and prompts and contact information. Thecommon area 205 may include data pertaining to products, rates, andother information provided by, or available through, the financialservices institution, for example. Such a common area 205 is optionaland may comprise any information or data. The information and datapresented in FIG. 2 are examples only.

A CD area 210 may be provided on the screen shot 200 that is directed toCDs and may be informational and/or contain promotional material aboutCDs and CD consolidation. A consolidation button or icon 220 may beprovided on the screen shot 200. The consolidation button or icon 220may be selected by a user. Selecting the consolidation button or icon220 allows the user to consolidate their CDs at maturity into anannuity, long term care insurance, or life insurance, for example, asdescribed further herein. A user may select the consolidation button oricon 220 by highlighting it and/or clicking on it for example.

It is contemplated that the consolidation button or icon 220 may beprovided and displayed on multiple web pages of a website. In animplementation, the consolidation button or icon 220 is only displayedfor certain users, based on criteria pertaining to each user, forexample. Example criteria may be based on whether the user already hasan annuity, long term care insurance, and/or life insurance, or whetherthe user has a certain amount of debt, etc. After a user logs in to theinstitution system, or a website associated with the institution system,for example, the consolidation processor 20 in FIG. 1, for example, mayassist in determining whether or not the consolidation button or icon220 is to be displayed for a certain user, based on informationpertaining to the user. The information pertaining to the user may beretrieved from storage and/or provided by the user, e.g., in response toquestions provided by the institution system.

In another implementation, the consolidation button or icon 220 may bedisplayed to all users. It may then be determined, after the user hasselected the consolidation button or icon 220, whether or not CDconsolidation is appropriate for that user. Such a determination may bemade by the consolidation processor 20 and/or a service representative50, 52, for example, in conjunction with information pertaining to theuser. The example information, data, and items shown in FIG. 2 areexamples only and are not intended to be limiting.

FIG. 3 is an operational flow of an implementation of a method 300 thatmay be used to provide certificate of deposit consolidation. Atoperation 305, a user may log into a website associated with theinstitution system and may be identified and authenticated using anyknown techniques. A web page may then be provided to the user atoperation 310. An example screen shot of such a web page is describedwith respect to FIG. 2.

Assuming that a consolidation button or icon is to be displayed on theweb page (e.g., based on criteria pertaining to the user, displayed toail users, etc.), the consolidation button or icon is displayed atoperation 320. The user may then select the consolidation button or iconat operation 330. Such a selection may take the form of highlighting thebutton or icon, clicking on the button or icon, or any other known formof selection. At operation 340, the user's CDs may be scheduled forconsolidation, examples of which are described further herein.

FIG. 4 is an operational flow of another implementation of a method 400that may be used to provide certificate of deposit consolidation. Afterbeing presented with a consolidation button or icon, the user may chooseto consolidate their CDs by selecting the consolidation button or iconat operation 405.

In an implementation, at operation 410, it may be determined whether theuser is eligible for CD consolidation. For example, the institutionsystem may receive information pertaining to the user's personal andfinancial situations from storage and/or from the user, and based onthis information determine whether the user is eligible for CDconsolidation. A CD may be consolidated into an annuity (e.g., animmediate annuity, a fixed annuity, or a variable annuity), long termcare insurance, and/or life insurance by rolling the proceeds of amatured CD into the purchase of an annuity or insurance, for example. Inan implementation, if the user already has these products, then thesystem may determine that the user is not eligible for CD consolidation.Alternatively or additionally, if the user has a certain amount of debt,or meets other predetermined personal and/or financial criteria, thesystem may determine that the user is not eligible for CD consolidation.

If it is determined that the user is not eligible for CD consolidation,the user may be notified via the website or email, for example, and/or aservice representative may contact the user, at operation 415.

If the user is eligible for CD consolidation as determined at operation410, or if operation 410 is not implemented (as it may be optional),processing continues at operation 20. A questionnaire may be provided tothe user at operation 420. The questionnaire may request informationfrom the user that may be analyzed and used to further determine whetherthe user is eligible for CD consolidation (e.g., the questionnaire mayask questions to determine if the user has adequate emergency funds,etc.), may be used to schedule CDs for consolidation into certainproducts upon maturity, may be used to docket maturity dates into acalendaring system so that the user may be advised when each CD is aboutto mature (e.g., 2 months priority to maturity, 1 month prior tomaturity, 10 days prior to maturity, etc.) or has matured (on the day ofmaturity or shortly thereafter), etc. Prior to providing thequestionnaire to the user, the questionnaire may be pre-filled orpersonalized with financial and/or personal data that is known to theinstitution system about the user, such as the user's name and known CDsfor example. This information may be retrieved from storage associatedwith the institution system.

The questionnaire may be electronically provided to the user via thewebsite or email, for example. The user may then fill out thequestionnaire, responding to any questions or requests for informationcontained in the questionnaire, and electronically provide the filledout questionnaire back to the institution system, at operation 430. Theuser may provide responses to the questionnaire that contain informationabout the user's CDs, such as the CD account number, name of thefinancial institution that issued the CD, routing (ABA) number, and dateof maturity. The user may provide the questionnaire via the website,email, or any other electronic means.

In an implementation, at operation 440, it may be determined whether theuser is still eligible for CD consolidation. This operation may besimilar to operation 410, and may be based on the information in theuser's response to the questionnaire. If it is determined that the useris not eligible for CD consolidation (e.g., the user does not haveadequate emergency funds, etc.), the user may be notified via thewebsite or email, for example, and/or a service representative maycontact the user, at operation 445.

In an implementation, if the user is eligible for CD consolidation asdetermined at operation 440, or if operation 440 is not implemented (asit may be optional), processing continues at operation 450. At operation450, the user and a service representative may confer to discuss the CDconsolidation, to provide a confirmation number, to confirm accuracy ofthe CDs and their related information, and to ensure compliance with anyapplicable disclosure laws, for example. Such a conference may takeplace by telephone or via an Internet chat session, for example, and maybe initiated by the user or the service representative. It iscontemplated that such a conference may be optional.

At operation 460, CDs may be scheduled for consolidation and/or CDs maybe monitored for maturity. Regarding consolidation, the CDs may, uponmaturity, be scheduled to roll over or otherwise have their assetstransferred into a previously selected annuity, such as an immediateannuity, a fixed annuity, or a variable annuity, or an insurance policy,such as long term care insurance or single premium life insurance.

CDs may also be monitored by the institution system and as they reachmaturity, the user may be advised or reminded that the CDs are reachingmaturity or have matured. The institution system may send such anadvisory or reminder by email, telephone, or other means, for example.The institution system may also provide one or more recommendations oroptions to the user for rolling over or otherwise transferring theassets from the maturing CD. The recommendations or options may includepurchasing one or more annuities and/or types of insurance. Therecommendations or options may contain general information and/or may betailored to the user based on the personal and financial informationpertaining to the user.

FIG. 5 is an operational flow of another implementation of a method 500that may be used to provide certificate of deposit consolidation. Atoperation 505, the user provides CD information to the institutionsystem, such as the amount, account number, maturity date, institutionthat issued the CD, and the routing (ABA) number, for each CD.

At operation 510, the institution system retrieves user information fromstorage. The user information may comprise personal information and/orfinancial information. The institution system may request additionalinformation from the user at operation 520. Such additional informationmay be personal and/or financial information that the institution systemdoes not have in storage and that may be useful to the consolidationplan generator in the generation of a consolidation plan. At operation530, the user may provide the additional information to the institutionsystem. The additional information may be used by the consolidation plangenerator in conjunction with the retrieved user information to generatea consolidation plan at operation 540.

A consolidation plan may contain information, recommendations, advice,and/or reminders, for example, regarding consolidating or rolling oversome or ail of the user's CDs as they mature. Consolidation or roll overmay take the form of using the assets of the CD when mature to purchaseone or more annuities and/or one or more types of insurance. Aconsolidation plan may provide recommendations as to how much insurancethe user should consider purchasing and what type of annuities the usershould consider purchasing. The consolidation plan may then be providedto the user, via a website or email, for example.

The user may review the consolidation plan and sign an authorizationform to authorize the financial institution to proceeds with theconsolidation plan. The authorization form may be presented to the uservia a website, email, facsimile, etc. In an implementation, the user mayelectronically sign the authorization form using any known electronicsignature technique. The user may send the signed authorization form tothe institution system where it is received at operation 550. Theinstitution system may then implement the consolidation plan, e.g., bysending a transfer form, at maturity, to the institution that issued aCD with instructions to forward the account to the institution system.

Exemplary Computing Arrangement

FIG. 6 shows an exemplary computing environment in which exampleembodiments and aspects may be implemented. The computing systemenvironment is only one example of a suitable computing environment andis not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use orfunctionality.

Numerous other general purpose or special purpose computing systemenvironments or configurations may be used. Examples of well knowncomputing systems, environments, and/or configurations that may besuitable for use include, but are not limited to, PCs, server computers,handheld or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-basedsystems, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, embeddedsystems, distributed computing environments that include any of theabove systems or devices, and the like.

Computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, beingexecuted by a computer may be used. Generally, program modules includeroutines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. thatperform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types.Distributed computing environments may be used where tasks are performedby remote processing devices that are linked through a communicationsnetwork or other data transmission medium. In a distributed computingenvironment, program modules and other data may be located in both localand remote computer storage media including memory storage devices.

With reference to FIG. 6, an exemplary system for implementing aspectsdescribed herein includes a computing device, such as computing device100. In its most basic configuration, computing device 100 typicallyincludes at least one processing unit 102 and system memory 104.Depending on the exact configuration and type of computing device,system memory 104 may be volatile (such as random access memory (RAM)),non-volatile (such as read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, etc.), orsome combination of the two. This most basic configuration isillustrated in FIG. 6 by dashed line 106.

Computing device 100 may have additional features and/or functionality.For example, computing device 100 may include additional storage(removable and/or nonremovable) including, but not limited to, magneticor optical disks or tape. Such additional storage is illustrated in FIG.6 by removable storage 108 and non-removable storage 110.

Computing device 100 typically includes a variety of computer-readablemedia. Computer-readable media can be any available media that can beaccessed by computing device 100 and includes both volatile andnon-volatile media, and removable and non-removable media. By way ofexample, and not limitation, computer-readable media may comprisecomputer storage media and communication media.

Computer storage media include volatile and non-volatile, and removableand non-removable media implemented in any method or technology forstorage of information such as computer-readable instructions, datastructures, program modules or other data. System memory 104, removablestorage 108, and non-removable storage 110 are ail examples of computerstorage media. Computer storage media include, but are not limited to,RAM, ROM, Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM),flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks(DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape,magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any othermedium which can be used to store the desired information and which canbe accessed by computing device 100. Any such computer storage media maybe part of computing device 100.

Computing device 100 may also contain communication connection(s) 112that allow the computing device 100 to communicate with other devices.Communication connection(s) 112 is an example of communication media.Communication media typically embody computer-readable instructions,data structures, program modules, or other data in a modulated datasignal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism, and includeany information delivery media. The term “modulated data signal” means asignal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed insuch a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example,and not limitation, communication media include wired media such as awired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such asacoustic, radio frequency (RF), infrared, and other wireless media. Theterm computer-readable media as used herein includes both storage mediaand communication media.

Computing device 100 may also have input device(s) 114 such as akeyboard, mouse, pen, voice input device, touch input device, etc.Output device(s) 116 such as a display, speakers, printer, etc. may alsobe included. Ali these devices are well known in the art and need not bediscussed at length here.

Computing device 100 may be one of a plurality of computing devices 100inter-connected by a network. As may be appreciated, the network may beany appropriate network, each computing device 100 may be connectedthereto by way of communication connection(s) 112 in any appropriatemanner, and each computing device 100 may communicate with one or moreof the other computing devices 100 in the network in any appropriatemanner. For example, the network may be a wired or wireless networkwithin an organization or home or the like, and may include a direct orindirect coupling to an external network such as the Internet or thelike.

It should be understood that the various techniques described herein maybe implemented in connection with hardware or software or, whereappropriate, with a combination of both. Thus, the methods and apparatusof the presently disclosed subject matter, or certain aspects orportions thereof, may take the form of program code (i.e., instructions)embodied in tangible media, such as floppy diskettes, CD-ROMs, harddrives, or any other machine-readable storage medium wherein, when theprogram code is loaded into and executed by a machine, such as acomputer, the machine becomes an apparatus for practicing the presentlydisclosed subject matter. In the case of program code execution onprogrammable computers, the computing device generally includes aprocessor, a storage medium readable by the processor (includingvolatile and non-volatile memory and/or storage elements), at least oneinput device, and at least one output device. One or more programs mayimplement or utilize the processes described in connection with thepresently disclosed subject matter, e.g., through the use of anapplication programming interface (API), reusable controls, or the like.Such programs may be implemented in a high level procedural or objectoriented programming language to communicate with a computer system.However, the program(s) can be implemented in assembly or machinelanguage, if desired. In any case, the language may be a compiled orinterpreted language and it may be combined with hardwareimplementations.

Although exemplary embodiments may refer to utilizing aspects of thepresently disclosed subject matter in the context of one or morestand-alone computer systems, the subject matter is not so limited, butrather may be implemented in connection with any computing environment,such as a network or distributed computing environment. Still further,aspects of the presently disclosed subject matter may be implemented inor across a plurality of processing chips or devices, and storage maysimilarly be effected across a plurality of devices. Such devices mightinclude personal computers, network servers, and handheld devices, forexample.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understoodthat the subject matter defined in the appended claims is notnecessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above.Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed asexample forms of implementing the claims.

1. A method of consolidating certificate of deposits, the methodcomprising: providing a processor; providing a consolidation button forthe certificate of deposits to a user on a computing device; receiving auser selection of the consolidation button; and scheduling, using theprocessor, one or more of the certificate of deposits for consolidationresponsive to the user selection of the consolidation button.
 2. Themethod of claim 1 wherein the consolidation button comprises aconsolidation icon displayed on the computing device.
 3. The method ofclaim 1 wherein providing the consolidation button and receiving theuser selection are performed via a website.
 4. The method of claim 1wherein the consolidation of the certificate of deposits includeconsolidating the one or more of the certificate of deposits, eachcertificate of deposit having a different maturity date, into one ormore recommended financial service products.
 5. The method of claim 1wherein the consolidation of the certificate of deposits include rollingthe certificates of deposits, at maturity, into an annuity or aninsurance product.
 6. The method of claim 1 further comprisingdetermining that the user is eligible for consolidating the certificateof deposits prior to the consolidation.
 7. The method of claim 1 furthercomprising comparing the user's personal or financial situation topredetermined personal or financial criteria to determine if the user iseligible for consolidation of the certificate of deposits.
 8. Anon-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-readableinstructions for consolidating certificate of deposits, thecomputer-readable instructions being executed by a computer having aprocessor and comprising instructions to: provide a consolidation buttonfor the certificate of deposits to a computing device; receive a userselection of the consolidation button; and schedule one or more of thecertificate of deposits for consolidation responsive to the userselection of the consolidation button.
 9. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 8 wherein the consolidation buttoncomprises a consolidation icon displayed on the computing device. 10.The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 wherein providingthe consolidation button and receiving the user selection are performedvia a website.
 11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim8 wherein the consolidation of the certificate of deposits includeconsolidating the one or more of the certificate of deposits, eachcertificate of deposit having a different maturity date, into one ormore recommended financial service products.
 12. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 8 wherein the consolidation of thecertificate of deposits include rolling the certificates of deposits, atmaturity, into an annuity or an insurance product.
 13. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 further comprisinginstructions to determine that the user is eligible for consolidatingthe certificate of deposits prior to the consolidation.
 14. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13 further comprisinginstructions to compare the user's personal or financial situation topredetermined personal or financial criteria to determine if the user iseligible for consolidation of the certificate of deposits.
 15. A systemfor consolidating certificate of deposits, the system comprising: aprocessor; and a computer-readable medium coupled to the processor andstoring a plurality of instructions, which, when executed, cause theprocessor to consolidate the certificate of deposits, the plurality ofinstructions comprising: instructions that cause the processor toprovide a consolidation button for the certificate of deposits on acomputing device; instructions to receive a user selection of theconsolidation button; and instructions to schedule one or more of thecertificate of deposits for consolidation responsive to the userselection of the consolidation button.
 16. The system of claim 15wherein the consolidation button comprises a consolidation icondisplayed on the computing device.
 17. The system of claim 15 whereinproviding the consolidation button and receiving the user selection areperformed via a website.
 18. The system of claim 15 wherein theconsolidation of the certificate of deposits include consolidating theone or more of the certificate of deposits, each certificate of deposithaving a different maturity date, into one or more recommended financialservice products.
 19. The system of claim 15 wherein the consolidationof the certificate of deposits include rolling the certificates ofdeposits, at maturity, into an annuity or an insurance product.
 20. Thesystem of claim 15 further comprising instructions to determine that theuser is eligible for consolidating the certificate of deposits prior tothe consolidation.